


Cotton Candy

by rancheel



Series: Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli, Lollipop [1]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Mid-Canon, My First Work in This Fandom, pls don't call me out on it i'm fragile but i will try better the next time, so if people are out of character later in this series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-03 01:49:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21171431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rancheel/pseuds/rancheel
Summary: Vivian Arroyo hasn't spoken to Malcolm Bright since he was a Whitly. The two of them have a long history, and Malcolm tries his best to start patching it up with a treat from their childhood.Set in the midst of S01EP05 of Prodigal Son





	Cotton Candy

**Author's Note:**

> Leave it to Tom Payne, his acting, and his stupid pretty eyes to draw me into another show about the world of crime. Please be gentle with me if you have any feedback!

The day Malcolm Whitly came into the NYPD on account of Vivian’s father essentially recruiting him with the newest case the team had taken on, she was quick to find a way to take the day off. 

She avoided him like the plague, whether it be at the NYPD offices with any case her father and the team decided to take on, or just figuring out his basic routine to avoid his schedule. 

However, her father just so happened to make Malcolm _Bright_ an official part of the team, even after he cut off someone’s fucking _hand_.

Vivian contemplated on quitting. She really did.

After talking with her father about it, Gil was nothing short of understanding. 

But he was also insistant.

Gil knew how the two of them were when they fell out around the time Malcolm was gearing up to go to Harvard and kept continually seeing his father, but he remembered the times when the two of them were kids and used to try and solve the cases he worked on all the time after overhearing him talking to Jackie about his day.

The two of them together would be a valuable asset to the NYPD, plain and simple. Vivian was already a spitfire with Dani and JT, but add Malcolm to the mix? He could see the potential with the four of them in the workplace.

Then again he could _ also _ see some personalities clashing, but overall it seemed like it would be a good time.

Or so he thought.

JT and Malcolm were already off on the wrong foot, Dani was just trying to be open to the idea of having an ex-FBI agent helping them while Vivian was nowhere close to the group for the next three cases afterwards. And those three cases involved a multitude of things including LSD, snakes, and obsessive social media star bodyguards. 

Needless to say, Gil was happy that his daughter was back in the NYPD trying to stay away from the team and their cases for a period of time. 

But after the social media star case, Vivian finally decided to try and be civil with the situation after taking time to realize how childish she was being.

She was an adult. Malcolm’s an adult. The two of them could handle themselves.

Hopefully.

For the next case, Vivian made the ultimate decision to stay in and do more investigating rather than be out and with the team with the excuse that she could get them ahead and tackle the onslaught of paperwork that came with the caseload, occasionally finding information that could further the investigation and pinning it onto the whiteboard in the meeting room that was claimed.

It was a good rhythm. 

Malcolm never tried to pull her aside and talk about anything, he asked whatever questions he wanted or needed answered in front of the rest of the group and probably already profiled her to know that Vivian wasn’t there to talk.

But then he came in with a bright—that made her chuckle, _ bright_— smile on his face, day two into the newest case, hands in his pockets before making a show of walking in with an exaggerated hum as she rearranged evidence on the whiteboard.

“You know I don’t have eyes in the back of my head, right?”

Malcolm hummed as Vivian pulled a picture and pinned it back with the correct evidence this time before turning around to look at him properly. He was sitting atop the mahogany table, criss-cross applesauce with his hands holding his chin up as he watched her reach for the file on the table.

He looked like a kid again.

“What’s going on with you?” Vivian questioned, grabbing the file with ease, “breathe in a little too much at the scene?” 

Malcolm started to sit up straight, laughing quietly at her question before clasping his hands together.

“Maybe. Where were you? I thought you were joining this one.”

Clearly, he didn't keep up with information as much as he should, in Vivian's opinion.

“I'm the one doing the paperwork so you and Dani don't have to,” Vivian chirped, starting to open the file and thumb through some of the papers as she rounded a side of the conference table before finding her abandoned chair and sitting down to reread the summary of the case.

“Oh,” Malcolm replied. Vivian noted that his voice sounded like he already knew that fact before skimming most of the unnecessary reports from the file to hide the face she wanted to pull from the fact that he was still profiling her. 

_After all the times he promised he wouldn't,_ Vivian's mind exclaimed in a sudden flurry of emotion. She was quick to shake it off and make it seem like she was moving some of her hair that was on her shoulder off of it.

“So, uh.” She heard shifting and assumed that Malcolm must be scooting closer to her.

Vivian was retaining most of the details when there was a lollipop hovering just above the paragraph she happened to be reading.

“Lollipop?”

Vivian rose a brow as her eyes trailed up the page to glance at the item in question that Malcolm held in her line of vision.

It was a Dum-Dum Lollipop. It looked just like it did when the two of them were kids and the wrapper was proclaiming the flavor was cotton candy.

Her favorite.

She was quick to avert her eyes back to the paragraph she stopped on, shaking her head. “No, thanks.”

“Come _ on_, Arroyo,” Malcolm drawled out, just barely waving the lollipop around by the stick to hide the fact that his hand was still shaking. “You _ know _ you want it.”

Vivian continued to ignore the scraping noises of the wrapper against the paper as she tried to continue the sentence before relenting with a sigh to look up at him. 

“Where did you even get this anyways?”

“My therapist's,” Malcolm replied as if it were obvious, still smiling kindly.

“Huh,” Vivian said softly before forcing her gaze back to the file and starting over completely with it.

Malcolm was patient for a few moments before letting out a groan, finally giving up on trying to convince Vivian to take his peace offering and let the lollipop momentarily fall out of his hand. He was being over dramatic for a _ reason_.

He just wanted to talk. He knows that their relationship has some tension and he’s been wanting to do what they do best.

Just talk.

Malcolm suddenly started to scramble to grab the lollipop before it fell to the floor, hearing a quiet giggle from Vivian as she kept her eyes trained on the case file.

“C’mon, Vi,” Malcolm started softly. The nickname felt almost foreign on his tongue after years of not saying it, but he’d never forget it. Vivian seemed tripped up by the sudden use of the name and the tone before finally placing the files on the table space between them as Malcolm slouched in front of her, still sitting atop the table. 

“Do you _ always _ have to sit like that?” She questioned suddenly, “it’s not very polite to have your feet up on the table, Malcolm.”

Malcolm let his head fall forward as he laughed, Vivian sounding almost _ exactly _ like Jackie all those years ago when they had dinner together and he dramatically threw his feet up on the table top to tell a story to Gil just before dinner had been served.

“Let a boy have his fun,” Malcolm replied playfully before holding out the cotton candy Dum-Dum again. “A peace offering.”

Vivian had a small smile on her face as she hesitated for a moment, eventually grabbing the lollipop.

“I’m sorry I’ve kind of been...” Vivian trailed off as she looked down at her hands in her lap, thumbing the lollipop wrapper. She sighed softly and leaned her head back to look at the ceiling. “You know.”

Malcolm smiled fondly and nodded his head. “You’re right. I do know.”

“Okay don’t get _ too _ cocky, Hannibal Lecter.”

Malcolm tried to hide the playful scoff. “Hannibal? I’m a Sherlock, at the very _ least_.”

Vivian started to smile fully now, her gaze set back on Malcolm and his amused expression as her hands started to unwrap the lollipop.

“Does that still make me your Watson? I think my Dad’s filled that position,” Vivian quipped before popping the treat in her mouth, pushing her seat back so she could get up to throw the wrapper away. 

She took a moment to get hit with the flavor of the lollipop, almost breaking into a full grin.

It reminded her of her childhood, almost distinctly.

Vivian was quick to get over herself and stand up from her chair, starting to turn around the corner of the table just as Malcolm followed her with his head.

“Gil’s more of a Mary, I think.” 

“Are you talking about the books or the show?” She questioned in response before stopping just at the trash can to meticulously fold the wrapper up until it was a small square just like when she was a kid. 

Malcolm let out a sigh in thought before finally getting off the table to stand near Vivian as she turned around to look at the whiteboard, pulling the lollipop out of her mouth so she could talk. She was still smacking her lips from the sudden wave of artificial cotton candy flavoring.

“I’m thinking the show, actually.”

“Oh,” Vivian started nodding before turning her head to look Malcolm, “I could see Dad as the BBC’s Mary then.”

Malcolm stood still for a moment to be sure he had Vivian's eyes locked on him before crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re trying to avoid something, aren’t you?”

Vivian sighed and shoved the lollipop back in her mouth, starting towards the door, “Malcolm, what have we agreed on about profiling?”

Malcolm was about to speak as Vivian left him in the meeting room, walking out and into the sea of desks of the NYPD.

He was running his hand through his hair as he tried to figure out why she wouldn't actually _talk_ and attempt to clear out the air between them. It took Malcolm a moment to actually look at the facts that were practically laid out before him.

Vivian wasn’t keen on talking to him about their relationship _yet_, but she took the peace offering. She even made a few jokes with him. It was _progress_.

Malcolm smiled.


End file.
